SunCorp

In an attempt to tackle the growing problem of electronic waste in the Mumbai-Pune belt, the Maharashtra Pollution Board of India plans a meeting of all stakeholders within three days, additional municipal commissioner R A Rajeev said.
    The pollution control board recently reported that the state generates more than 20,000 tonnes of e-waste every year to which Mumbai’s contribution is more than 11,000 tonnes whereas Pune generates 2,584 tonnes of waste. A total of 1.46 lakh tonnes of e-waste ios produced in the country every year.

    Despite Mumbai being the top generator of ewaste, the city doesn’t have any disposal system in place. Rajeev said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in consultation with a private firm Ecosmart, had made a presentation before the environment secretary about processing e-waste at some suitable location in Mumbai-Pune belt. “ There is an urgent need for developing a system for collection, handling, retrieval, recycling and safe disposal of electronic waste for Mumbai and adjoining area so that the menace of e-waste generated in the area can be kept under control,’’ Rajeev said.
    E-waste can be referred to as all end-of-life or disposed electrical and electronic products, as well as their components and peripherals. This includes computers, cell phones, fax machines, photocopiers, radios and televisions. 

Waste not, want not. 

VERY few families can truthfully say they do not have a groaning cupboard filled with plastic bags somewhere in their home.

Equally, very few can claim they have never thrown an unnecessary number of carriers away in their lifetime.

The knowledge that they take years to biodegrade and cannot be recycled will undoubtedly prick the odd conscience – but not enough to stop our bad habits.

So any move that could reduce the amount of plastic bags being introduced to landfill sites, and other areas of the environment, is to be welcomed.

A sensible debate about the possibility of bringing in new laws to reduce the impact on the environment has long been required.

Now, thanks to the efforts of corporate energy officer Neil Evans, who made an appeal at the Welsh Assembly’s petitions committee yesterday, it is going to happen.

His proposals for new laws have been passed on to an all-party group of AMs seeking more devolved powers on environmental waste issues from Westminster.

There is no doubt that plastic shopping bags and wrappers have a devastating effect on the landscape and wildlife.

Just driving through Wales, one will regularly see carrier bags wedged firmly inside hedgerows.

Anyone who cares one jot about our country would want to help deal with the issue.

Perhaps Mr Evans’ suggestion – that we switch completely from the use of carrier bags to brown paper bags – is a little impractical, although this has been done with some success in other parts of the world such as San Francisco and Taiwan.

But something does need to be done to deter us from continuing to damage the environment needlessly, simply for the sake of convenience.

Perhaps it would be an idea to follow Ireland’s lead and introduce a tax on plastic bags. Or simply persuade supermarkets to stop giving them away for free.

In the current climate of environmental do-goodism, there are two kinds of people.

One is Robert, a portly man loading five plastic bags filled with food into his Chevy Tahoe SUV in the parking lot of the Fresh Market, the upscale grocery store in Coconut Grove. His ginormous white vehicle still sports Montana plates — even though he moved to Florida long ago — and he is proud to say he carries a chainsaw in the truck.

Told that Miami might follow eco-crazed San Francisco and prohibit use of plastic bags at grocery stores, he rolls his eyes. "Why should they be banned?' he snorts.

Environmental concerns, petroleum, manatees, birds, you know.

"So?" he spits. Then he and his blond companion roar off in their 13-mile-per gallon SUV.

Then there's Marc Sarnoff, a Miami city commissioner who represents the neighborhood where Robert gas-guzzles. This month he plans to float four green proposals before the commission: ban all leafleting in the city, ask county leaders to require that all taxis be hybrid vehicles, stop city government from buying bottled water, and prohibit grocery stores from using plastic bags. He also bought 3000 canvas shopping bags for his constituents. "Miami's a town of ultimate convenience and ultimate consumerism," Sarnoff says. "Let's break the mold a little bit."

The most controversial proposal could be the plastic bag ban. It's unlikely that other commissioners, much less the business community, will support it.

India, Australia, and even genocide-plagued Rwanda prohibit the bags. San Francisco's ban, passed in March and soon to take effect, requires large supermarkets to offer customers bags made of recyclable paper, plastic that breaks down easily enough to be made into compost, or reusable cloth.

Plastic bags, which are made from petroleum, take up to 1000 years to decompose. They strangle or suffocate tens of thousands of turtles, fish, and birds each year. Americans use about 100 billion of them annually. It takes about 122 million gallons of oil to make the disposable totes.

Now — along with Miami — Santa Cruz, Baltimore, Austin, Annapolis, Philadelphia, and London are all considering banning or taxing the bags.

The hardest sell might be in Miami. We're a notoriously apathetic and trashy city. Every April, volunteers sweep 30 tons of garbage from the Biscayne Bay shoreline during Baynanza — and much of that is nonbiodegradable plastic. We're ranked 314 out of 359 metro areas for use of energy-efficient light bulbs. And earlier this year, Washington, D.C.-based Earth Day Network ranked Miami 71st out of 72 large cities, based on "overall goodness of environmental indicators."

Only Detroit fared worse.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle in Sarnoff's plastic bag crusade will be in the checkout lanes of Miami's largest stores, where robotic baggers place one lonely item in one plastic bag and then double-bag it for good measure. Even when people bring their own totes, it's often awkward to convince baggers to use them — sometimes they try to put the canvas bag inside a plastic one.

"You get looked at like you're nuts," says 31-year-old Andrew Nienaber, a red-beard, shaved-head transplant from California. He keeps six canvas totes in his Toyota truck. On a recent night, he gently loads some sushi into a tan cloth bag at the checkout at the Publix on Biscayne Boulevard at NE 50th Street. He began using the reusable bags a year ago, after a cabinet in his kitchen overflowed with hundreds of plastic bags from past shopping trips. "It was getting stupid. What a ridiculous waste," he says.

Nearby, Samantha Kruse fills a dozen plastic bags with sushi, juice, spinach, and other goodies. "If they banned plastic, it would make for a greener Miami," says the 24-year-old raven-haired beauty. She reuses the bags at home. "Kitty litter," she says. She'd love to start using canvas totes. "If they had some here, I'm sure we'd buy them," she adds.

As a matter of fact, Publix does carry them, roomy green ones for $1.49 each. But they are hidden amid the flotsam at the checkout counter, including one stash wedged next to a rack of butterscotch confections and tubs of cotton candy.

It's lunch hour on a recent Friday at Coconut Grove's Fresh Market — a store that pipes in soothing classical piano music and offers everything from organic broccoli to 82 percent organic cacao candy bars at five dollars a pop — and 14 of 15 shoppers counted are using plastic bags. No one is spotted carrying a paper bag, which is at least biodegradable.

One person has canvas totes — and she's a holistic health practitioner driving a Prius hybrid. "I'm trying to avoid plastic as much as possible," says Christine Davies, age 61, as she loads her four bright green canvas sacks into the Prius. "A plastic bag ban would be great, but I don't know how it's going to go down here."

Most of the other shoppers are like June McNicoll, a 51-year-old horticulturalist. She walks past the fall pumpkin display erected outside the store's exit, toting a few items in three plastic bags. McNicoll is a little embarrassed to be asked about the bags; she doesn't like the idea of using trees for bags, but knows plastic is bad for the environment. "I do have a canvas bag at home," she comments sheepishly. "I know I should bring it to the store. It's a free one — I got from a pledge on National Public Radio."

Things aren't much better across town at the Shoppes at Liberty City strip mall on NW 54th Street, where three deflated and dirty bags soggily litter the parking lot. Ronnie, a 47-year-old with a big smile, isn't aware of the petroleum connection to the fistful of bags in his right hand. Asked whether people should bring their own canvas bags to the store, he shakes his head. "No, people would be stealing if they brought they own bags," he says.

Ronnie backs Sarnoff's bag ban, however. "I'm down with it. Anything for the environment — hey, anything to keep us here."

China, maker of 70 percent of the world’s lightbulbs, has followed Australia’s example and agreed to phase out incandescent light bulbs in favor of more energy-efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). China’s decision comes as a result of lobbying by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), an independent grantmaking institution focused on helping developing countries undertake sustainability projects.

“We are starting a world campaign to ban all inefficient lightbulbs,” says Monique Barbut, the GEF’s CEO. “And China has just agreed.” She adds that the transition would be made over the next decade. Australia announced it would phase out incandescents by 2010, and GEF is working with the Australian government to help get the Chinese phase-out up and running.

According to Barbut, China’s switch to CFL bulbs could offset 500 million tons of carbon dioxide, the world’s chief greenhouse gas, annually. GEF will commit $25 million to the Chinese effort to ban incandescent bulbs, which use four to five times as much electricity as CFLs to produce the same amount of light. GEF is currently in talks with Mexico, Indonesia, Venezuela and Costa Rica about banning incandescent bulbs as well.

One of the wealthiest yet least-known environmental funding agencies worldwide, the Washington, DC-based GEF is the financial arm for several international intergovernmental agreements dealing with topics ranging from biodiversity, climate change, persistent organic pollutants, international waters, ozone depletion and desertification.

As part of its larger push to green all of its operations, Wal-Mart has teamed up with the nonprofit Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) to measure the amount of energy used—and greenhouse gases emitted—throughout its entire supply chain, not just at its own facilities. The company will use the data it procures to spur its suppliers to look for ways to make their own manufacturing and distribution processes more energy-efficient and lower carbon dioxide emissions.

According to John Fleming, Wal-Mart’s chief merchandising officer, suppliers will be encouraged to monitor and manage their greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to help the world’s largest retailer reduce its overall carbon footprint. “This is an important first step toward reaching our goal of removing nonrenewable energy from products that Wal-Mart sells,” Fleming told reporters.

Wal-Mart is launching the plan by working directly with manufacturers of seven commonly used products: DVDs, toothpaste, soap, milk, beer, vacuum cleaners and soda. And starting next year, the company will ask its electronics suppliers to fill out a scorecard evaluating their products based on environmental criteria including energy efficiency and durability. “This is an opportunity to spur innovation and efficiency throughout our supply chain that will not only help protect the environment but save people money at the same time,” Fleming added.

While critics have been skeptical of Wal-Mart’s overall environmental vision, dubbed Sustainability 360 earlier this year by company management, continued steps in the right direction are winning over some converts, as environmentalists realize what a large impact the company can have on consumers and manufacturers alike. But the service of Adam Werbach, the former youngest-ever president of the Sierra Club, as a Wal-Mart consultant has been controversial in the environmental community.

“This partnership between CDP and Wal-Mart is a very significant milestone in corporate action to mitigate climate change,” says Paul Dickinson, CDP’s chief executive. “We look forward to other global corporations following Wal-Mart’s lead.”

They're ubiquitous. They accompany us home each time we shop. They swirl about our oceans, they cling to our trees, they drift down our city sidewalks, they adorn metal fences, they're consumed by animals.

They are an urban tumbleweed, a flag of the consumer era.

Each year across the world some 500 billion plastic bags are used, and only a tiny fraction of them are recycled. Most of them will have a short lifetime with a consumer -- they'll be used for the few minutes it takes to get from the store to home and then they're thrown away.

But what does "away" really mean? Plastic shopping bags can last up to a thousand years in a landfill. In the environment, they break down into tiny, toxic particles that become part of the soil and water. Fortunately, some communities in America have started taking serious action.

For every bag, there's a cost.  Plastic bags, and other plastic refuse that end up in the ocean, kill up to one million sea creatures every year, such as birds, whales, seals, sea turtles, and others. And the number of marine mammals that die each year because of eating or being entanglement in plastic is estimated at 100,000 in the North Pacific Ocean alone.

"Broken, degraded plastic pieces outweigh surface zooplankton in the central North Pacific by a factor of 6-1. That means six pounds of plastic for every single pound of zooplankton." Which means, when birds and sea animals or looking for food -- more often, they are finding plastic.

Our history with plastic bags is short but significant. Plastic sandwich bags were unveiled in 1957 and quickly became a part of our routine, with department stores adopting plastic shopping bags in the late '70s and supermarkets employing them by the early '80s.

Although bags are given out free these days, they are not without their costs. Retailers in the United States spend $4 billion a year on plastic bags, which gets passed on to customers as higher prices.

500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year and are causing a global epidemic. The enormous demand for plastic bags ties into the surging global demand for oil -- plastic bags are made from ethylene, a petroleum byproduct. In the United States alone, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil is used annually to make plastic bags that Americans consume.

"Eliminating the use of disposable plastic bags is about more than just the environment," "it is about health, sustainability, economics and focusing on what kind of quality of life we want."

A growing list of communities and countries are beginning to rethink their dependence on plastic bags. Already a complete or partial ban on the bags has been approved in Australia, South Africa, parts of India, China, Italy, Bangladesh and Taiwan.

Africa has seen an increasing problem with bags as Environmental News Network reports, "South Africa was once producing 7 billion bags a year; Somaliland residents became so used to them they renamed them "flowers of Hargeisa" after their capital; and Kenya not so long ago churned out about 4,000 tons of polythene bags a month."

In Asia, the bags were banned in 2002 in Bangladesh after they were considered to be major factors in blocking sewers and drains and contributing to the severe flooding that devastated the country in 1988 and 1998.

Taking a different route, in 2002, Ireland imposed a 15-cent tax on bags, which led to a rapid 90 percent reduction in use. Ireland uses the tax to help fund other environmental initiatives. Bags are also taxed in Sweden and Germany, and are set to be banned outright in Paris this year.

In the United States, Californians Against Waste estimate that Americans consume 84 billion plastic bags annually. The United States has been slow out of the gate in addressing the growing problem with plastic, but recently momentum has started for positive change.

Currently 30 rural Alaskan villages and towns have banned plastic bags. And in March the city of San Francisco became the first major municipality to ban the use of plastic bags, and nearby Oakland has followed suit, but not without controversy and litigation from industry groups.

The best alternative Barger and Early agree, are reusable bags and education -- lots of it. By purchasing a reusable cloth bag, consumers can save hundreds and perhaps thousands of plastic or paper bags.

It is also important, Barger says, to educate grocery store managers and ask them to talk to their employees.

Political pressure helps, too. Ask your elected officials to consider legislation to impose bag taxes or bag bans.

Probably the best thing we can do, though, is change our behavior as consumers and begin valuing durability instead of disposability. "There is a crisis happening right now," said Barger. "We have got to stop the flow of plastic today. People really want some organization to fix this problem. But we are the only people that can fix it."

 

 

 

NOTHING ON EARTH is impossible in the present era. Man is said to be a social being, creative genius and a thinking animal. No other living organism has been blessed with so many characteristics.  It has always been man who created things out of existing ones and it has always been man destroying the very same things he made! If man decides something must be done then, he can surely do it, if he puts his maximum effort into it!

Well friends let us think of a CLEAN INDIA. The thought of such a situation right now would seem a little bit impossible, but actually is it so? No! It is absolutely not! As said earlier, where there is a will, there is a way. Keeping in mind the busy schedule of the people in the country, we cannot expect all of us going around and cleaning the country! There are simpler ways to implement this. Making the “duty” lighter, we just have to focus on our own home. Just that little piece of land wherein we stay! First of all, take a look around your home. It might be scrambled with grass, plastic, and useless household items. Well, that’s what I find around my home! All that we should do is to clean the area around our home. And I mean it, just clean our own home and not our neighbour’s! Well, what other idea can be simpler than this? Neighbours would clean their own homes. And when all the homes in a ward are clean, one whole ward in a city is clean! And like that, all wards in a city can be cleaned. When all the wards in the city are clean, a whole Panchayat would be clean and when all the Panchayats are clean, one whole district is clean. And as you know, when all districts are clean, the state is clean…and when the state is clean, the country is clean! And there we are! Our mission possible!!!

Well, the question as to where to dump the waste materials will surely arise. For this the government should adopt better methods for waste management. This too can go through the same process! If we manage the waste of our own “little” home, then the whole process would follow. Getting accustomed to nuclear families, the thought of managing a home with a maximum of four members is not that much a difficult task. Anyways, here I cannot forget mentioning the use of plastics. It might seem a bit difficult in the beginning, but practice makes a man perfect! Start practicing and in due course of time we will be happy with what we are doing to the society! If we could run with our feet and talk flawlessly with our tongue, which was indeed gained only through practice and practice here means the experience that we went through, all the time “unknowingly”!!!

When we get used to using reusable bags always, we may surprisingly in the end find it difficult to shift to plastic!

Dear friends, every thing that would lead to a developed country depends on how the people of the country love their country. So, if we need to love our country, we need to love our home first. If dedicated love starts from our own homes, then we would be proud to say that we belong to the completely Clean India! And this indirectly would surely reduce the number of deaths and diseases occurring due to the unclean surroundings! So dear friends! The future of our nation lies just in your minds view! Start loving your home and end up in the result wherein the country would love you!! Jai Hind.

Plastic, once hailed as a modern-day wonder, has faced increasing scrutiny over its impact on the environment.

One of the most useful, durable and ubiquitous materials known to man, it permeates every sphere of human life. It protects and stores our food; it transports our goods; we brush our teeth with it; we can find it in our refrigerators, cars, computers and mobile phones; we can thank it for our shower curtains, our plumbing and the flooring we walk on.

In short, it's everywhere, sustaining our way of life to the extent that we struggle to imagine life without it.

We now consume around 100 million tons of plastic annually, compared to five million tons in the 1950s when American housewives were just discovering the wonders of Tupperware. To put that into perspective, one ton of plastic represents around 20,000 two-liter bottles of water or 120,000 carrier bags, according to the British Web site Waste Online.

The estimates of how many plastic bags used annually vary wildly from 500 billion to anywhere up to 1 trillion. Even taking the more conservative estimate of 500 billion still roughly translates as 1 million every minute, according to Reusablebags.com. As for plastic bottles, Earth Policy Institute estimates that in 2004 the global consumption of bottled water alone was 154 billion liters.

According to Fast Company, in any given week in the United States, 1 billion bottles of water are being moved around the country, with Americans consuming 50 billion bottles each year. Of that, a whopping 38 billion of them are being sent to landfills, while on a daily basis 60 million just get chucked away.

Growing number of critics

These numbers have only fueled the anti-plastic movement; particularly as environmentalists argue that we can easily live without them (recent debate over bottled water has brought up the fact that around 40 percent of bottled water in the United States begins as simple tap water, according to Earth-Policy.org).

According to Greenpeace, more than 1 million birds and 100,000 marine mammals are estimated to perish each year by either eating or becoming trapped in plastic waste.

And then there is the human health issue. An increasing number of reports are now crying foul play over Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in the manufacture of plastic containers such as water bottles, baby bottles, microwave dishes and food containers. One recent study published in the journal "Reproductive Toxicology" has now found a link between BPA and female reproductive disorders such as endometriosis, cystic ovaries, fibroids and cancers.

And some studies into Polyethylene Terephthalate, or PET, which is in water bottles, plastic bags and food containers, has found that after repeated use it may release a compound --di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate- that is a suspected human carcinogen.

Industries stress benefit of plastics

The plastics industry, however, stresses the benefits of the product.

According to PlasticsResource.com, an educational Web site run by the American Chemistry Council, people have benefited from plastics. Using recycled plastic as a replacement for say, wood, can have a positive impact on the environment, it argues, as fewer trees get felled to make products such as garden furniture, which it says could be better served by the more durable and lower maintenance plastic.

The organization also points out that by replacing plastic with different kinds of material, we could in fact be creating more environmental problems for ourselves. For instance, it says, it takes 30 percent less energy to make foam polystyrene containers than paperboard containers.

Without plastics, the group says, an extra 400 percent more material by weight and 200 percent more by volume would be needed to meet existing packaging needs.

It also points out that transportation requirements would increase substantially if plastic bags were replaced by paper grocery bags: For every seven trucks needed to deliver paper grocery bags to the store - only one truck is needed to carry the same number of plastic bags" the site says.

Nations consider plastics policies

About 90 percent of plastic bottles end their lives in landfills, according to Treehugger.com. Even biodegradable waste can be potentially hazardous in a landfill environment. Many environmentalists worry about one of the assets of plastic -- its durability. No one really knows how long it takes to break down, because plastic simply hasn't been around long enough. Such is the uncertainty that environmentalists estimate that it could be anywhere from 500 to 1,000 years.

Incinerating plastic doesn't seem to be an option for safely eliminating plastic waste, either. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, burning plastic is equivalent to burning fossil fuels, says Friends of the Earth (FOE). FOE actually recommends landfills as a better way of containing plastic waste, as at least it keeps the carbon contained in the ground, it says, rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. And while recycling appears to be the automatic safe option, critics complain that recycling is too labor-intensive, energy-intensive and costly.

As a result, plastic recycling programs have met with varying degrees of success around the world: in Sweden the recycling rate of PET bottles in 2004 was 80 percent compared to the U.S which was 15 percent. According to the Container Recycling Institute, U.S plastic recycling rates have been in decline for the past 10 years (some of this may have to do with the fact that waste is increasingly being shipped to places like China, which now boasts the world's biggest plastic recycling plant in Beijing). And according to Reusablebags.com, only 1 percent to 3 percent of plastic bags ever get recycled.

The conclusion that more people appear to be coming to as the best choice for the future of plastic is one of two options: reuse or stop production at source. The project undertaken by the Kerala Highway Research Institute in India, where shredded plastic waste has been mixed with bitumen to lay roads, is certainly a good example of the former, particularly as the proponents of the scheme claim the road is stronger and more durable than non-plastic roads, although that remains to be seen.

As for the latter option, more and more nations are taking steps to ban plastic bags such as Australia, Bangladesh, Ireland, Italy, South Africa and Taiwan as well as parts of India. But such initiatives have been slow in progressing, with some governments unwilling to force the main purveyors of plastic -- supermarkets -- to stop selling them, preferring to encourage voluntary programs.

Perhaps the most successful strategy to date has been Ireland's "PlasTax," where consumers are charged for each bag they use. Launched in 2002 it has now resulted in a 90 percent reduction in plastic bag use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ireland - The world's greatest success. In 2001 a law came into effect that imposed a tax of 15 eurocents (85 Israeli agurot) on every plastic bag. Since then their use has decreased by 90 percent and the state treasury has recorded revenues of more than 10 million euros. The supermarkets offer multiple-use bags in exchange for payment.

Taiwan - The law bans the use of plastic bags in chain stores, food stores and restaurants. The fine for breaking the law is 300,000 Taiwan dollars (about U.S. $10,000). 

Australia - The retailers and the government agreed to reduce the use of plastic bags, and concurrently the gover slogan, "Without bags, please." Stores are prohibited from giving out bags without limit, and containers for recycling have been installed. 

Germany - Stores and shopping centers request a voluntary donation of about 50 eurocents per bag (about NIS 3) and offer cloth bags at reduced prices. 

France - In some places there is a quick checkout counter for people who have multiple-use bags. In Corsica the local law bans the use of plastic bags. 

Denmark - Plastic bags are dealt with under the packaging law, which places responsibility for collecting the bags on the manufacturers, and they take money for their use. Use of the bags has plummeted by 66 percent since the law took effect. 

United States - In the United States there are no federal or state laws concerning the use of plastic bags. An exception is San Francisco, which in March of this year decided to ban the free distribution of disposable bags and instructed the chain stores to provide bags made of paper, biodegradable plastic or cloth. 

India - The law prohibits the use of plastic bags due to repeated blockages of the drainage system. (Other countries where their use is banned for similar reasons are Tanzania, Madagascar and Bangladesh.)